"Donna, pass me that dress from there." I lean across the bed and pick up the black ruffly dress Mom is gesturing to. She folds it and pushes it into the overflowing suitcase. Mom is going on a trip to Spain for her latest photoshoot. Right when I need her the most. It's been a week since Rhys delivered that warning and I have avoided him like hell ever since. He scares me and that weird crush I had on him has long since dissipated.

Rhys still doesn't talk to anybody and that just confirms my suspicions. There's something weird about him. He likes to be alone when he can be one of the most popular boys at school. I know all of the girls fancy him, but I know now there's nothing attractive about him on the inside, where it really matters.

Mom notices my faraway look and touches my cheek, "I won't be gone for long, Donna. I'll be back before you know it. Plus, your birthday is this week and Daddy is going to buy you a good car." Mom strokes my hair. My birthday? Oh yeah. How can a normal person forget about their own birthday? I try to smile convincingly at Mon, "Okay, Mom. I just can't believe you got called out now."

"I know, baby." Mom's shoulders sag, "Just before your sixteenth birthday. But it's work."

"I know, Mom." I say, "I understand. It's okay."

"I'm sorry, baby." Mom kisses my forehead and gets up. I follow her down the stairs and into the main room. "Okay, Avril." She says sternly, "You look after my girl now."

"Don't you worry. I will." Aveil replies cheekily.

Mom gives her a crooked smile and a one-armed hug, "I'll see you guys when I get back. Bye." She pecks my cheek.

"Bye Mom." I say and watch her and Dad leave the house. I slump down on a sofa and Avril comes over.

"I wouldn't be sad if I were you. No nosy Mom for two whole weeks!" I look at her exasperatedly. Avril smiles and shakes her head.

"Yeah, I know. Your mom is not nosy at all. Not like mine." says Avril. I smile at her, my mind still on Rhys and that heavy warning.

Don't go to the tower and stay away from me. Or else...

I haven't dreamt of the tower since that warning. But why did Rhys talk of the tower as if it was more than something I dreamt up? Why is he associating himself with it? What is going on?

"Hello?" Avril waves her hand in front of her face.

"Sorry, what?" I say, snapping out of my little train of thought.

"What are you thinking about?" Avril says, emphasizing each word.

"Nothing, nothing." I wave it off, trying to keep my thoughts in the here and now.

"You know, Donna, I'm beginning to think Rhys is a little weird." Avril says, as if the idea has just come to her mind now.

"You don't say!" I tease, "Avril, that's what I've been telling you all along. But you didn't want to listen."

"I know." Avril's shoulders slump, "He just always alone and I see him staring at you like... like something to eat. It's just really unnerving." I look down at the ground, my throat clogging up. His warning has instilled fear in me; a strange kind of fear that prevents me from meeting his eyes in school, from acknowledging his presence in class, from talking to him in Biology. It makes me edge to the far corner of my seat, as far away from him as possible...

I'm walking through swathes of rolling mist. I know I'm exactly where I'm not supposed to be, but my feet carry me on regardless. I'm being led to that tower, where I'm not allowed to go. Before I know it, I'm pushing the iron gates open, fighting the nausea. I look up. A window is open. A dark-haired figure in the window. Taking a deep breath, I start forward and then halt. The figure is gone. I hear a rustling from behind and spin around. Nothing is there. I stand, facing the iron gates for a few moments.

I turn again and the colour drains out of my face.

A boy with blue eyes, brown hair and a coiled body stands in front of me. My legs wobble as the dizziness takes on a new height and I look up at him with horror. "What are you-" I don't finish. The boy whirls me around and clamps his hand to my face.

"Don't even speak." The boy says, his breath ruffling my hair and the side of my cheek, "Don't you even dare. I warned you, Donna, I warned you about coming here. I told you to stay away. Why didn't you listen?"

"It's not my fault." I plead, "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to come, but something keeps-"

"How did you find the passageway? Tell me, Donna!" The boy screams. Echoes ring around us and I take deep breaths. My eyes keep rolling into the back of my head.

"Please." I mumble, "Not my fault. I didn't want to come. Please. I'm sorry."

"Donna, tell me. How did you find the passageway to the tower?" The boy with the gruff, melodious voice sounds faraway... so distant... I collapse in his arms, my eyes closing. I fall back towards the ground but he's there to break my fall, my head resting in his lap. "Donna!" He bends over me, trying to waken me, "Donna! Wake up, listen to me!" I don't answer. I'm unconscious.

The Next Morning...

A knocking wakes me up. I'm stiff all over and my mouth is dry. I sit up and realise where I am. On the floor in front of my wardrobe. I'm in my navy blue vest top and my faded shorts. Another round of knocking pierces my ear drums. I haul myself up and go over to the door, wrenching it open. Dad stands in front of me, looking fresh in a golfing outfit, "Do you want to come golfing with me, Donna?"

"No, thanks, Dad. I'm going to stay at home; I'm feeling a bit down." I say, pushing my hair back and sighing. Rhys was the figure in the tower. Rhys, out of all people.

Seriously. He's even invading my dreams now.

"Okay, sweetie." Dad ruffles my hair like he did when I was a kid and then leaves. I sigh and then go back into my room, changing into a black top, a hoodie that has yellow stripes at the end of the sleeves and at the hem, jeans and my blue Converse. My phone buzzes with a text. Unkown sender.

I am outside your house. Open the door now, we need to talk. If you don't open the door, I will come in myself. I know your dad and mom aren't home.

I skip downstairs, puzzled and look out of the window. Brown tousled hair, a leather jacket, jeans, white sneakers. He has his back to me. I open the door, "I thought you wanted to stay away."

He turns and I see his eyes. Blue with green specks.

He storms past me into the house.

"Hey!" I protest, "Do you mind just barging into my house? What's wrong with you?" I follow him into the kitchen.

Rhys pushes me up against the wall, "I warned you. I told you to stay away from the tower. Why did you come?"

"It's not up to me." I say, my teeth clenched with frustration, "How do you know about the tower? How do you know, Rhys?"

"That's none of your business, Donna. I don't warn people twice. You have no idea what you're getting yourself into. Just stay away."

"No." I shake my head, "I won't, not until you tell me why you're speaking as if the tower is real."

"Because it is real. And it's worse than your scariest nightmare. It's a living hell. Stay well away, Donna." Rhys spits, his eyes blazing with ret hot fury. I look at him as if he is crazy.

"Are you feeling okay? I sleepwalk, I dream about this tower and you are talking to me as if it is a real place that I can actually go to." I stare at him with disbelief.

"Yes, you sleepwalk." Rhys agrees, "While you sleep, you walk all the bloody way to the tower and try to get in. Why?"

"Rhys, this is LA!" I remind him, "There is no spooky old tower here."

"That's what everybody thinks, Donna. Why do you go to the tower despite all my damn, bloody warnings?" Rhys softens a little, the fury begins to dry from his eyes.

"I don't know." I reply and an unfamiliar pulling begs me to go closer to him. I do, but only because I'm compelled to. "Please tell me what's going on. I'm going crazy." I mumble, tears leaking out of my eyes. A part of me feels appalled that I have let him see me like this, but the major part doesn't give a damn. He knows what is going on and he can help me figure this out.

"I can't." Rhys blinks, his long lashes brush against his cheekbones.

"Please." I plead, "I'm going out of my head. I feel so helpless and vulnerable. Nearly every night I am forced to go to that freaky tower. I need to know."

"I just can't, Donna, I can't!" Rhys insists, "You don't know how much I want to find out why you keep going to the tower, but... I can't tell you."

"Rhys, you have to trust me." I say, "I'm as much involved in this as you are. You have no choice."

"I'm much more involved in this than you think you are. I want to tell you, but I can't." Rhys looks pained, his blue eyes almost glowing, his pale skin taut over his jaw. I lean forward and touch his jaw, "Please?"

Rhys blinks and his hand is on my cheek, "You have to believe me, I would if I could. I can't share this secret; it's not mine. Donna... please stay away?"

"Not until you tell me." The stupid crush is back; only hitting me ten times harder than it did the first time. Everything about him draws me in; his eyes, his hair, his muscled body, his kissable mouth, his rough hands. Where his hand touches my skin, electricity flows slowly through my body. "Not until you tell me what's going on." I repeat, my voice barely a whisper.

Rhys' jaw tightens and he slumps perceptively, "I'm sorry, I have no choice. If I tell you, you'd die."

I look up at him sharply, but Rhys doesn't seem to be joking. "What does that mean?" I inquire, my eyes wide, my face drained of all colour.

"I can't tell you." Rhys says, "But if I could, you would be the first I would confess to."

Then he's gone.

Where his hand touched my skin is longer electrical, it is cold and empty. I give out a small gasp and then find my way to a chair. I sit down shakily, my breaths short and shallow.